I'd like to thank all my constituents who came to my water forum on Wednesday—with nearly a thousand people attending, the event was an extraordinary demonstration of our community's commitment to overcoming our government-made water crisis.
As I argued at the forum, our best hope for resolving our 2.5 million acre-foot water shortfall is for our elected officials, ag groups, and water districts to unify behind a common agenda of reforming the Endangered Species Act, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, and the San Joaquin River Settlement, as well as building myriad new water storage projects. Without this sort of concerted action, a million acres of farmland will be forced out of production.
Although the radical environmentalists believe they've already won this fight, the great turnout at the forum has renewed my conviction that it's not too late to turn things around—if we act fast and smart.
Special thanks to Rep. Valadao, Westlands' Johnny Amaral, Friant's Jason Phillips, Kole Upton, and KMJ's Ray Appleton for participating in the panel at the forum, and to all my constituents who submitted questions for the Q&A period. You can read about the forum here, here, here, and here.
